The key candidates aiming to unseat Prime Minister Keir Starmer have all expressed a desire to reverse the Brexit vote and rejoin the EU.
Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who recently stepped down from Starmer’s cabinet, has officially declared his plan to run for leadership. He stated that if elected, he would advocate for rejoining the EU.
Streeting labeled Brexit as a ‘catastrophic mistake.’ He commented in the *Times of London*, saying, “The Vote Leave campaign misled us into believing that Britain could establish a global free trade paradise, as if we still had control over the East India Company.”
“We need a new special relationship with the EU. Britain’s future lies in Europe, and one day it will return to the EU.”
This stance places Streeting in opposition to the current government’s position. Although Prime Minister Starmer campaigned against Brexit, he insists that the outcome of the 2016 referendum must be honored.
Interestingly, Streeting’s views on rejoining the EU resonate with his primary competitor, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who’s also trying to take leadership.
According to a Westminster gossip outlet, Burnham expressed at last year’s Labour conference, “I would like to rejoin the EU. I hope it happens in my lifetime… I believe in unions of all sorts—British trade unions, the EU, and the benefits it has brought to our country. People tend to prosper when they join unions, and I stand by that.”
Current public opinion indicates majority support for rejoining the EU in the UK. However, it’s uncertain how moving away from Brexit will influence working-class regions, where Labour is drawing support away from Nigel Farage’s Reform Britain party.
It seems that Reform Britain is preparing to turn the Makerfield by-election—a situation prompted by Burnham’s plan to return to Parliament—into a referendum on the EU, with claims that rejoining might open the doors to mass immigration. They argue that rejoiners like Burnham would welcome 500 million people into the country.
This narrative may strike a chord in Makerfield, where nearly two-thirds of voters backed leaving the EU in 2016.
The Labour government, which gained power promising to uphold the referendum’s decision, could face significant backlash if it appears to shift away from Brexit.
Reform politician Matt Goodwin criticized, “They truly don’t care about you. They don’t want to control our borders or halt unchecked mass migration. They ignore your democratic choice to leave the EU and treat you like second-class citizens in your own country. Vote for reform.”
Additionally, at an upcoming Freedom Association conference, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is projected to argue that Labour lacks the electoral mandate to undo Brexit.
In statements ahead of this event, Labour peer David Jones warned that the ongoing leadership race is a troubling indicator for Brexit, suggesting that even Starmer, who seeks closer ties with Brussels, “would abandon Brexit in a heartbeat if it meant saving his position.”
“As for the remaining minor sectors, they view the EU flag as a symbol of power-hungry traitors. They yearn to rejoin the EU, like with the single market and customs union, while ignoring that British taxpayers would have to pay billions for these ‘privileges’ that destroy jobs,” he claimed.
